Family Care International has been working in Burkina Faso since 1995, establishing a headquarters office in Ouagadougou, the capital, in 1998. A satellite office was opened in Dori, capital of the northern Sahel region, in 2009. Both offices are led and staffed by health and advocacy professionals who are Burkinabé nationals.

FCI has been registered in Burkina as a national non-governmental organization since 1999, and has been selected as a national strategic partner of both the Ministry of Health and the United Nations Population Fund–UNFPA.

FCI-Burkina Faso is recognized nationally, and across Francophone West Africa, for its expertise in maternal and reproductive health, in the prevention of maternal mortality and morbidity (including obstetric fistula), and in community mobilization strategies. FCI works to reach the poorest and most vulnerable populations, particularly women and girls in rural areas.

FCI-Burkina Faso collaborates closely with government, UN agency, and civil society partners at the national, regional, and local levels, engaging in constructive activism to strengthen maternal and reproductive policies and programs and providing technical support that strengthens local partners' capacity to design and implement effective projects. Our work focuses on:

Convening national and local leaders, political and administrative authorities, medical professionals and health workers' organizations, and religious and customary leaders to build consensus around policies and actions

Strengthening the capacity of government agencies and services, NGOs, and community-based organizations to strengthen policies; plan, develop, and implement programs; and create innovative tools

Mobilizing communities, civil society partners, and grassroots organizations to advocate for improved access to and quality of health services, and to educate women and men, and particularly young people, on issues of sexual and reproductive health

Projects and achievements

FCI-Burkina Faso is a leading player in national and regional efforts to improve maternal and reproductive health. At the local level, FCI has had a particular impact in the arid, remote Sahel region. The Sahel has the country's worst maternal health statistics: only 41% of women there give birth with a skilled attendant, for example, compared with levels as high as 83% in regions around the capital, Ouagadougou. FCI's recent work has included:

Working closely with the Ministry of Health and other agencies in developing national maternal health strategies and roadmaps

Participating as the lone civil society representative from Francophone West Africa in regional discussions on developing structures to ensure accountability for national commitments to the Global Strategy for Women's and Children's Health and other international frameworks

Partnering with the government to initiate and coordinate a national Countdown to 2015 process

Strengthening the capacity of national NGOs and grassroots groups to:

Advocate for more financing, greater political will, and stronger programs to improve reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health

Promote integration of reproductive, maternal, and child health programs into established HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis strategies

Working on the ground in the Sahel region to reduce maternal mortality and address obstetric fistula, a common, devastating childbirth complication, by:

Training over 1,000 outreach workers and community leaders to encourage healthy behaviors, including use of available pre-natal care and skilled birth attendance, reaching more than 100,000 villagers with essential information and services

Identifying more than 130 women living in ill health and isolation caused by obstetric fistula, arranging for corrective surgery, and providing skills training and financial assistance so that they could re-integrate into their communities

Strengthening the capacity of local grassroots organizations to partner with the health system in delivering maternal, reproductive, and HIV services; improving the quality of care; and distribute contraceptives

During the period from 2000 through 2007, FCI-Burkina Faso implemented a range of community mobilization activities to increase utilization of skilled childbirth care in rural areas, as part of FCI's multi-country Skilled Care Initiative.

Burkina Faso is a poor, land-locked West African nation of 17 million people. After attaining independence from France in 1960, the country was known as the Republic of Upper Volta until 1984, when it took the name Burkina Faso.

Burkina ranks 183rd out of 186 countries listed on the United Nations' Human Development Index, as of 2012, with a gross per capita income of $1,202.

Burkina's maternal mortality ratio, according to 2010 UN interagency estimates, was 300 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, which represents a 57% decrease in maternal mortality since 1990. This ratio compares favorably with the overall maternal mortality ratio for sub-Saharan Africa, which was 500 per 100,000 in 2010, and indicates that Burkina has been making progress toward achievement of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG 5) target of reducing maternal mortality by 75% between 1990 and 2015.

According to Countdown to 2015, 54% of births in Burkina Faso were attended by a skilled health worker as of 2006. This represents a substantial increase since 1998-99, when fewer than a third of births took place with a skilled attendant, but still left nearly half of all women still giving birth without any skilled care. The total fertility rate in 2010 was 5.9 children per woman, and only 32% of adult women who wished to control their fertility had access to family planning (as of 2006).

More detailed data on reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health in Burkina Faso are available from Countdown to 2015.

Working with grassroots organizations in the remote Sahel region of Burkina Faso, on the edge of the Sahara Desert, an FCI program seeks to prevent obstetric fistula by improving women’s access to emergency obstetric care, and to provide surgical treatment for women living with fistula and support their reintegration into their communities. In two blog posts, FCI-Burkina Faso's Alain Kaboré tells the stories of women whose lives have been changed by this remarkable program. Read more at The FCI Blog here and here...

Obstetric fistula project focuses on building local advocacy skills

Following up on our influential 2007 publication, Living Testimony: Obstetric Fistula and Inequities in Maternal Health, in 2010 FCI and UNFPA released a set of electronic publications to help local and national advocates develop advocacy campaigns to improve maternal health services, demand availability and encourage use of skilled childbirth services, improve access to treatment for fistula survivors, address cultural taboos, and encourage suvivors' re-integration in their communities. Advocacy tools available in English and French include information on "promising practices" being succesfully used in developing countries, a range of multimedia resources, a communications guide for developing messages and targeting decision makers, and sample press releases.

FCI selected to be strategic partner of Burkina Faso Ministry of Health

FCI-Burkina Faso has been selected as a strategic partner of the Ministry of Health, and asked to provide technical assistance in the implementation of national health policies in the country’s Sahel region. As one of only 10 such strategic partners selected from among more than 80 applicants, FCI provides technical assistance to the ministry in the areas of sexual and reproductive health and maternal health, focusing its work on strengthening the capacity of grassroots and community organizations.